Just Emptied My First Keg

The Bitter ran out last night. My next batch I plan to keg is still a solid week away from being ready for transfer. What should I do with the empty keg? My plan is to rinse it, put some santizer in it and run the sanitizer through the tap before letting it sit until my Ringwood Ale is ready to transfer. Anything else I should do?

A short search should turn up a recent discission on the topic. Apparently one of the 'beer experts' (palmer) believes that storing anything wet is asking for trouble, especially if the 'wet' is capable of scoring stainless steel.

His advice was: dry, emtpy and inverted. sanitize before use.

edit: Here's the quote: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=79681&postcount=8

I store mine with sanitizer under pressure. Palmer is a metallurgist, so he knows what he is talking about, but I haven't had any problems so I must be using the right stuff.

MilwaukeeHomeBrewer said:

The Bitter ran out last night. My next batch I plan to keg is still a solid week away from being ready for transfer. What should I do with the empty keg? My plan is to rinse it, put some santizer in it and run the sanitizer through the tap before letting it sit until my Ringwood Ale is ready to transfer. Anything else I should do?

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If your empty kegs is still under some pressure, then just leave it that way util the next batch is ready to keg.

Think of it as a big bottle and treat it the same. I agree with the "rinse, dry and invert" plan.

It's under pressure right now, but I plan on doing a good scrub on everything as I had some excess foaming issues towards the back half of the keg. Looks like the santize and invert is the method I'll employ. Thanks everyone and apologize if the thread was already discussed.

MilwaukeeHomeBrewer said:

The Bitter ran out last night. My next batch I plan to keg is still a solid week away from being ready for transfer. What should I do with the empty keg? My plan is to rinse it, put some santizer in it and run the sanitizer through the tap before letting it sit until my Ringwood Ale is ready to transfer. Anything else I should do?

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A whole WEEK???? Man you need more kegs. That way if one spits on you, you just put in a fresh one and start brewin'!!

Clean and then sanitiser (I use Potassiam MetaBisulphate) and store under pressure.
This way I am sure that it is pressure tested when I crack it open for the next fill.

CO2 + SO2 = NO BUGS

Kilroy

I've been
1 - drinking all the beer as fast as possible
2 - rinsing with HOT tap water 2-3 times to get all beer out as soon as possible
3 - connect back up and blow gallon or 2 through the lines from keg to clean
4 - fill with gallon sanstar and shake the heck out of it
5 - blow that through the system to clean the lines
6 - tear down and scrub/soak all keg parts & tubes in SANSTAR while I clean the keg the same way - 1/2 hour soak as I'm cleaning up
7 - rinse/brush everything in HOT water again 2-3 times
8 - air dry everything 2-3 days until TOTALLY dry in and out
9 - lube all o-rings and reassemble and hit with a few PSI of CO2/purge/CO2
10 - you have pressure when your ready down the road - the keg is holding psi & ready
11 - hit with a gallon of sanstar and shaken allowing it to run out of all connects
12 - blow it all out though my line
13 - then the system is all ready to go and sanitized for the fresh filled keg

all this takes 1/2 hour total - I'd rather store dry to fight off anything wet growing and sanitize just before use. tearing down after each batch makes me fell like nothing is old or clogged and is clean. again why chance anything at this point after 1-2 months of time for 1/2 hour.

I have kegs that are usually waiting and never used why store full of liquid with a possibility to go bad and you should sanitize before use anyway - just my 2cents.

ablrbrau said:

A whole WEEK???? Man you need more kegs. That way if one spits on you, you just put in a fresh one and start brewin'!!

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Oh, I'm well aware of the flaw in my system. I have 2 batches in carboys and one's about ready to go, but I want to bottle it for summer camping trips. The other is being transferred to secondary tonight and I'll be brewing a new batch this weekend as well. Other than that, the main thing holding me back is my 2 month old and 2 1/2 year old and the wife giving me those "isn't it about your turn to hold the baby?" looks when I start talking about brewing a new batch of beer. Fatherhood. Who knew it could affect your ability to drink beer in such a negative way? The one good thing is my wife was the one who poured the beer which emptied the keg. Hard for her to say I shouldn't put aside time to brew a new batch when she just emptied her favorite beer I've brewed so far.